Twenty Years' Recollections of an Irish Police MagistratePorter, Frank Thorpe
History
Twenty Years' Recollections of an Irish Police Magistrate
Porter, Frank Thorpe
Crime -- Ireland; Criminals -- Ireland; Ireland -- Social life and customs; Porter, Frank Thorpe, 1801-1882
"We had a very stirring row in that corner one night, when I was
apprentice to old Aby Colles; for at that time we had generally to
provide our own _subjects_, or to purchase them, at a very high price,
from men who followed the calling of "sack-em-ups;" and as money was not
always plenty, we used to form parties for the purpose of invading this
and other burial-grounds, and exhuming the bodies. Brophy, the dentist,
had a brother named Maurice, whom he was desirous of putting into the
medical profession. He was a manly, generous fellow, and possessed a
very strong inclination for anything that denoted enterprise, or
promised excitement. Pat had taken a cottage and garden in Rathmines,
and for his whim or amusement he went into a shop in Kennedy's Lane and
purchased a spade; and having given his address, the seller wrote the
name and address on the handle of the implement. The spade was sent
home, and upon the same day a party was organised, of which I
constituted one, to visit this place and disinter two or three bodies
that had been buried in the morning. I mentioned to Maurice the project
we had formed, and he eagerly joined in the undertaking. All was
arranged; and we drove out to this place, left our cars at a little
distance, and entered the ground, determined to work silently and
quickly. However, our volunteer friend had provided himself with his
brother's spade, and certainly used it with great despatch, although not
so noiselessly as might be wished. But we had been watched. We were seen
entering the cemetery, and a body of men, armed with every rough weapon
that they could procure, came suddenly upon us. We had to retreat, and
made a running fight until we reached the wall, and there our associate
was attacked by a man who, with fearful imprecations, declared he would
have his life. Blows were quickly interchanged; the combatants closed;
and a fierce struggle occurred, which was terminated by Maurice urging
his antagonist to the wall, and very speedily pitching him over; the
depth at the other side was at least ten feet, although where the
encounter occurred was only a foot or two lower than the wall top. The
man fell, exclaiming that he was murdered. He groaned heavily; and we
succeeded with great difficulty, and not without some severe blows from
sticks and stones, in effecting an escape from a scene where we felt
almost fully convinced that we had left a warm corpse in our attempt to
obtain a cold one.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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